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Self and society: Sacramental confession and parish worship in late medieval and Reformation France.
- Format:
- Book
- Thesis/Dissertation
- Author/Creator:
- Lualdi, Katharine J.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- History, Modern.
- Middle Ages.
- Europe--History.
- Europe.
- History.
- Church history.
- Religion--History.
- Religion.
- 0320.
- 0330.
- 0335.
- 0581.
- 0582.
- Penn dissertations--History.
- History--Penn dissertations.
- Local Subjects:
- Penn dissertations--History.
- History--Penn dissertations.
- 0320.
- 0330.
- 0335.
- 0581.
- 0582.
- Physical Description:
- 217 pages
- Contained In:
- Dissertation Abstracts International 57-11A.
- System Details:
- Mode of access: World Wide Web.
- text file
- Summary:
- Are notions of the self in western culture distinctive? How did they come about? In addressing these questions, many scholars have turned to the history of sacramental confession for answers. By emphasizing individual sin and guilt, they maintain, the practice of confession helped to nurture an inner sense of the self which was free from outward, communal ties. Hence, from their interpretive stance, the rise of the self signaled the decline of the community. My dissertation challenges this stance, demonstrating the ways in which notions of the self and notions of society were inextricably linked through sacramental confession and parish worship in late medieval and Reformation France.
- Five dioceses in the Midi form the geographic focus of my study. They offer a unique array of sources documenting the regional response to religious reform and dissent in this period, such as pastoral visitation records, synodal statutes, provincial council decrees, and printed manuals on confession. These sources reveal that sacramental confession was embedded in a system of rites and obligations binding Christians to their parish. Therefore, when evaluating the historical significance of the sacrament and its possible effects on lay religious experience, we must look beyond the individual act into the realm of communal worship.
- This dissertation adopts such an approach by examining the role of sacramental confession in late medieval parish worship, and the changes that this role underwent in the sixteenth century. Amidst the pressures of Protestant reform and Catholic counter-reform, I argue, diocesan authorities enhanced the liturgy of parish worship to teach the "people" communally how to be "true" Catholics individually. Sacramental confession was a constitutive part of this process--not simply as an act, but as a package of information about sin and penance that was disseminated weekly at the Sunday parish mass. Consequently, individual religious formation found its meaning and expression in the rites of collective piety.
- Notes:
- Thesis (Ph.D. in History) -- University of Pennsylvania, 1996.
- Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-11, Section: A, page: 4889.
- Supervisor: Lynn Hunt.
- Local Notes:
- School code: 0175.
- ISBN:
- 9780591205183
- Access Restriction:
- Restricted for use by site license.
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